Word: laos
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...carnage, highlighted by vicious artillery barrages that killed three civilians for every soldier, had ended in a rout for Rebel Captain Kong Le, the malcontent paratrooper who had seized control of the city last August to demand conciliation with the Communist Pathet Lao guerrillas and an end to six years of halfhearted jungle warfare. Kong Le and his Pathet Lao allies fled north into the jungle last week, dragging their Russian-supplied howitzers behind them over primitive roads. Into the city rolled Prince Boun Oum, 53, the new Premier, along with Laos' real strongman, General Phoumi Nosavan...
Showdown. Kong Le began by reinforcing his garrison with 2,000 Communist Pathet Lao guerrillas from the nearby jungles. Then he turned for further aid to his good friend, Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Abramov. Helpfully, Abramov flew in six 105-mm. howitzers and eight 120-mm. mortars as well as a batch of North Vietnamese to teach the Laotians how to use their new weapons. At his stronghold to the south, Savannakhet, General Phoumi countered by convening most of the members of the National Assembly. They voted Prince Souvanna out of office and named as the new Premier Boun...
Gradually Kong Le's men retreated-to the outskirts of town, then to the airport (his only supply line to the Communists). Caught in a deadly barrage, 1,500 surrendered and the rest fled into the jungle country that the Pathet Lao controls. As Vientiane counted its dead (an estimated 200), TIME Reporter James Wilde cabled: "The streets were littered with broken glass, shattered bricks, mangled cars, shell cases, abandoned trucks and Jeeps. In the center of town I passed bodies covered with a cloth or a bamboo mat. Funeral pyres lit the sky. Here and there the sidewalks...
...which maintained correct relations with Neutralist Souvanna but made no secret of its private preference for anti-Communist Phoumi, quickly offered its support. A State Department spokesman warned that aggression against Laos from Communist North Viet Nam could bring both Thailand and South Viet Nam to the rescue and start a Southeast Asian war. But even without overt aggression, Boun Oum and Phoumi faced bitter days ahead. Though Phoumi declared that all he wanted was "a neutral Laos," the Communists were smarting for revenge, and from the Pathet Lao came an order of the day: "Develop guerrilla warfare powerfully. Destroy...
...hard as Souvanna tried, the country would not be pacified. Instead, it ran apart like globs of skittering quicksilver. The soldiers began fighting each other. Pathet Lao guerrillas encircled Vientiane, the seat of Souvanna's government, under the guise of coming to negotiate; Souvanna's own Captain Kong Le marched out to oppose insurgent General Phoumi in the jungles along the great and languid Mekong River. And when Souvanna fancied that the U.S. was aiding Phoumi to his detriment, he himself applied for Russian aid. Phoumi's American-made 105-mm. howitzers resounded in the jungle...